🎙️ STUDIOZER0 BEYOND SURVIVAL A long conversation. Slow culture. Creative resistance. Cultural reflection. Poet, musician, and author Natalie Damjanovich-Napoleon joins Kelli and Geraldine at the StudioZer0 table for a wide-ranging conversation about poetry, music, migration, racism, motherhood, and the fight to keep Australian arts alive. Born to Croatian immigrant parents in Western Australia, Natalie shares her journey from Perth to Santa Barbara, where she recorded albums with k.d. lang’s bassist David Piltch and Linda Ronstadt’s Kenny Edwards, and eventually back to Australia. We explore her poetry collections If There’s a Butterfly That Drinks Tears and The Commonwealth of Amnesia, the latter examining Croatian migrant assimilation, cultural memory, belonging, and the cyclical nature of racism in Australia. Natalie also reflects on completing her PhD during menopause while raising a child, the Morrison government’s defunding of arts degrees, why Tasmania might offer a model for arts support, and the enormous contribution of Australia’s volunteer economy — a contribution that too often goes unrecognised. Along the way, we share stories of Croatian food traditions, wartime Croatia, family, motherhood, and the unexpected connections that shape a creative life. And, of course, there’s Gizmo, our much-loved rescue dog and Superhost! The conversation culminates in two powerful poetry readings: Adrienne Rich’s Diving Into the Wreck and Natalie’s own If There’s a Butterfly That Drinks Tears. Because art isn’t simply something we consume. Art is something we make, something we live, and something we must fight to keep alive. 🎧 WATCH & LISTEN ▶️ Start watching Beyond Survival here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ1YDZSgzdonYRb5eun4FVjqIrW19u7iA&si=Q50EX7aI721C19rT 🎙️ Missed Part A? Find the earlier conversation in our Beyond Survival series on the playlist above. 🔔 Subscribe and turn on notifications so you never miss an episode of Beyond Survival — where art, spirit, culture, and storytelling come together to reimagine the future. Each episode is created for artists, thinkers, and those who don’t feel at home in fast culture — a space where art is lived, not consumed. 🎙️ Hosts: Geraldine & Kelli🎨 Guest: Natalie Damjanovich-Napoleon🐾 Superhost: Gizmo🎬 Producer: Stephanie Davis 🍵 Recorded at the table with tea, honey cake, and melting moments. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━CHAPTERS━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 0:00 — Introduction0:54 — Natalie’s Poetry Books3:43 — Love, America & Becoming a Mother5:14 — Making Music in Santa Barbara: David Piltch & Kenny Edwards6:27 — Losing Kenny Edwards & Creative Connections8:59 — Gizmo the Rescue Dog11:27 — Food, Family & Croatian Heritage16:52 — Croatian Food Memories & Traditions18:55 — Kelli’s Time in Croatia During the War21:03 — Migration, Racism & Belonging22:08 — The Commonwealth of Amnesia: Croatian Immigrant Experience31:19 — PhD, Menopause & the State of Academia37:18 — Government Defunding of the Arts38:13 — Tasmania’s Arts Support Model40:05 — Volunteer Hours: Arts vs Sports ($34 Billion)42:05 — Supporting Artists Directly43:47 — Favourite Piece of Writing44:54 — Reading: Diving Into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich48:21 — Discussion: The Poem’s Relevance Today49:12 — Reading: If There’s a Butterfly That Drinks Tears51:40 — Beyond Survival: Natalie’s Vision for the Future55:56 — Closing & Sign-off ━━━━━━━━━━━━ STUDIOZER0 LINKS ━━━━━━━━━━━━ StudioZer0 Arts Inc. https://www.studiozeroart.org LISTEN TO STUDIOZERO BEYOND SURVIVAL 🍏 Apple Podcasts 🟢 SpotifySpotify ❤️ Patreon — Support StudioZer0 Arts Inc. https://www.patreon.com/cw/StudioZer0ArtsInc ▶️ YouTube — Subscribe https://www.youtube.com/@studiozeroart7590 🧵 Threads https://www.threads.com/@studiozer0.art 📰 Substack https://substack.com/@artsmartstudiozer0 📸 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/studiozer0.art 🔵 Facebook https://www.facebook.com/kelli.sharp.studiozero.art 🎵 TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@studiozer0.arts 💼 LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelli-sharp-83ab54a ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ BEYOND SURVIVAL: THE TABLE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ THE PLEASURE OF MAKING Inspired by our conversation with Natalie, this edition of Beyond Survival: The Table brings creativity into the kitchen. Three recipes, three different experiences, and another opportunity to explore the pleasure of making, sharing and enjoying good food. CHICKEN CHASSEUR 🇫🇷A French country classic featuring chicken, mushrooms, herbs and a rich savoury sauce. PASSION FRUIT TART WITH MERINGUE 🥧Tangy passionfruit, buttery pastry and fluffy meringue come together in this delicious dessert. PASSIONFRUIT & MACADAMIA TRUFFLES 🍫Chocolate indulgence with tropical passionfruit and buttery Australian macadamias. READ THE FULL RECIPE ARTICLE ON SUBSTACK:https://artsmartstudiozer0.substack.com/p/beyond-survival-at-the-table-with?r=86j7v0 ━━━━━━━━━ARTIST WATCH ━━━━━━━━━ Natalie Damjanovich-Napoleon Discover more of Natalie’s creative work across poetry, writing and music. ✍️ Poetry, Writing & Creative Work https://www.nataliedamjanovichnapoleon.net/ 🎵 Music & Songwriting https://www.nataliednapoleon.net/ 📰 Natalie on Substackhttps://substack.com/@nataliednapoleon 📚 SUBSTACK READINGS Poetry is not merely something to be read. It is something to be heard, felt, questioned, and carried with us. In this episode, we explore the power of poetry through two readings: 📖 Diving Into the Wreck — Adrienne Rich A searching exploration of identity, history, power, and the stories we must challenge to discover what lies beneath the surface. 📖 If There’s a Butterfly That Drinks Tears — Natalie Damjanovich-Napoleon Natalie’s own poetry brings us back to the intimate relationship between language, memory, emotion, and the experiences that shape who we become. 💛 SUPPORT STUDIOZER0 StudioZer0 Arts Inc. is a non-profit organisation. Every dollar goes towards helping other artists. We believe artists deserve more than applause. They deserve opportunities, audiences, recognition, and the means to continue creating. If you value independent voices, Australian arts, poetry, music, and conversations that make room for deeper thinking, please help us keep this work going. ❤️ Support us on Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/cw/StudioZer0ArtsInc 📰 Follow us on Substack:https://substack.com/@artsmartstudiozer0 ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@studiozeroart7590 💬 Listen, share, comment, and tell others about the artists whose work deserves to be heard. When independent artists and independent platforms support one another, we create space for voices that might otherwise go unheard. BEYOND SURVIVAL’S THREE RULES 1. Love ferociously, regardless, always. 2. Laugh until your belly hurts, every day. 3. Breathe and let it go. Simple words. A lifetime of practice. ABOUT BEYOND SURVIVAL Beyond Survival is a StudioZer0 podcast bringing artists, thinkers, and creatives to the table to explore slow culture, counter-rhythm living, and the journey beyond survival mode into authentic creative expression. We make room for the conversations that fast culture often leaves behind. We explore art as lived experience, creativity as resistance, and culture as something we actively make together. Hosted by Geraldine & KelliFeaturing Gizmo the Superhost 🐾Produced by Stephanie Davis 📍 A table of art, culture, counter-rhythms, and lived experience — from Perth, Western Australia 🇦🇺 Because surviving is not the same as living. And making art is one way we begin to imagine something different. 💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION What does it mean to keep making art when the systems that should support artists are failing them? How do migration, memory, family, and cultural identity shape the stories we tell? And what would Australia look like if we truly valued the people who make its culture? We’d love to hear your thoughts. Listen. Reflect. Share. Support independent artists. Art - Spirit - Culture - Activism. Perth, Western Australia 🇦🇺 StudioZer0 Arts Inc. — Art is lived, not consumed. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit artsmartstudiozer0.substack.com/subscribe
